Narayanapura

Narayanpura is a potter's village on the outskirts of Bangalore. We went there to see what assets these people had. How we could sell this village to outsiders. We spoke to several people there. what we found out was that most people there were potters. the fact that this place was a "potter's village" helped bring tremendous amounts of business in. So even though pottery was a dying art, it didn't seem to affect them. they don't have many facilities available but the ones they need are close by. There is a school, a hospital and they source their clay from close by. Being situated near the Jog falls, the largest plunge waterfall in the country, helps provide almost stable hydro-electricity. Water, unfortunately is only available on alternate days. All villagers are well connected with the outside world and most of them own cell phones. What I found very strange was that women were not allowed to sit at the pottery wheel. They used other techniques for making pots, most women grew crops. Also, most of the potter's children are moving away from this profession. 

Creating a personna

  We did an exercise where we made up excuses for why we did not come to school on a certain day. I have a pet lizard and my excuse was that I had mistaken his hibernation for death. And had not come to school because i wanted to give him a funeral. Later he woke up and I realized that he wasn't dead. Sudipto then talked about how you could get information about the kind of person someone was by just that simple story.
  He asked us to observe and talk to a community of our choice. My group decided to study a group of construction workers. We were then asked to create a personna using the qualities that these construction workers had. Our imaginary construction worker was a woman called Shilpa. She had two children who she could not afford to send to school and bought along with her to work because there was no one else to take care of them. She risked her professional hazards on them as well. Her husband was a garbage collector. 

Designing lunch boxes

   Our target audience were people who use cycles to commute everyday. They have difficulties carrying their lunch to work everyday because there is no place to keep it. We designed a lunch box that can be attached to the front rod of the cycle. Since indian food is messy and a little difficult to eat out of a lunch box we also attached a stainless steel plate to the bottom of the lunch box that can be peeled off and used. Since it fits below the box, it gives space for a spoon and fork to be stored.
  Another feature our lunch box had, was that some of the compartments were detachable. The side compartment is divided into three but these divisions can be played around with or removed completely.
the lunch box was square and was made of soft, flexible plastic. This lunch box could then be attached to the front rod of the cycle with nylon straps and stainless steel buckles.